Cross-Content Reading Strategies
...to engage & challenge students
If you have questions or concerns about this PD, please contact:
Erika San Miguel, M. Ed
English Language Arts Curriculum & Instructional Specialist,
Humanities Team
AISD Teaching and Learning Community
Email: erika.sanmiguel@austinisd.org
Website: teachermaterials.weebly.com
Location: 1111 East 6th Street, Austin, TX, USA
Phone: (512)414-4479
Twitter: @GeckaSanMiguel
Students need support at each step - before, during, and after reading.
Below is a compilation of the "Before, During, and After Strategies" that we reviewed during this BLEND course. These are NOT the only before, during, and after strategies - continue to add to your list of ideas on the padlet in the BLEND course!
Before Reading Strategies
Provide scaffolds & make text more accessible:
- Pre-teach vocabulary (use visuals, cognates, and TPR for ELL students)
- Allow students to interact with vocabulary (list/group/label - don't give categories before hand: let students circle to group words on a page, draw lines to make connections, use images, etc)
- Hook/Engage students with Talk #1 about a quote from the article, graph/table, fact, video, or question using structure of TRTW, etc.
- Give students a purpose/rationale for reading (ex: "You will read this article/text to figure out the difference between a reflection and a refraction.")
- Make predictions with Possible Sentences
- Activate background knowledge & make connections to prior learning/content using KWL 2.0 (last slide)
- Model reading strategies & expectations, when appropriate (how to figure out vocabulary when reading, think aloud to show when you stop to think/infer, "fix up strategies" when you get stuck or confused)
During Reading Strategies
Offer ways to engage with text during reading:
- Use text codes (symbols) to help monitor comprehension (when they don't understand, have a question, etc)
- Use a strategy like Highlight Plus (from TRTW: Reading Strategies)
- Teach students to Notice & Note (annotate) important signposts in nonfiction texts (Contrast & Contradiction, Word Gaps, Quoted Words, Numbers & Stats, Extreme Language)
- Offer an organizer for note-taking like Cornell Notes, Venn Diagram, visual mapping, text structures like cause & effect, etc. This site also has a bunch of great ideas!
- Assign reading partners/study buddies (especially for ELLs)
- Chunk the text (stopping at different points to do different things - draw illustration that represents what you read, summarize in 5 words, ask a question, turn/talk and write down a partner's comment, etc)
- Have fix-up strategies at each table or on wall for reference. Try these for secondary: Fix Up Strategies or these for Elementary: Reading Strategies!
After Reading Strategies
Help students process, reflect, and remember content:
- Use sentence stems for accountable talk using academic terms
- Use three big questions from Notice & Note in group conversations: (1) What surprised me? (2) What confused me? (3) What challenged/changed/confirmed my thinking?
- Try Talk #2 strategies from TRTW
- Summarize with SWBST
- Pose different levels of questions to students (& call on random students with a randomizer app - not hand raisers!)
- Evaluate importance of content (have students choose the 7 most important statements/ideas individually, then just 5 with a partner, then 3 with a table group, then 1 as a class, etc)
- Make connections between different articles/texts using a Venn Diagram
- WRITE: Try writing strategies from TRTW
- WRITE: Use the 11 Min Essay
- WRITE: Make connections and have fun with RAFT Writing
Want to add more ideas to a Padlet?
It would be wonderful if our AISD community could continue adding to and building on the list above for reading strategies.
Please check out the Padlet (below) and add to it whenever you can to share more reading strategies and ideas!